Two types of religious internalization and their relations to religious orientations and mental health

Two types of religious internalization are conceptualized that are presumed to vary in their relative autonomy. Introjection represents a partial internalization of beliefs and is characterized by self- and other-approval-based pressures. Identification represents adoption of beliefs as personal values and is characterized by greater volition. These 2 types of internalization are compared conceptually and empirically with existing measures of religious orientation and are used to predict varied functional outcomes. Results in 4 independent Christian samples show systematic construct validities and relations with mental health and self-related outcomes. Also, evangelical teenagers are shown to be higher on both introjection and identification than controls. Results are discussed both in terms of prior approaches to the psychology of religion and the significance of internalization for personality functioning.     

Migrant mental health: A model for indicators of mental health and health care consumption.

Objective: This study explores the relationship between mental health and health care consumption among migrants in the Netherlands. Design: Samples of the Turkish (n = 648), Moroccan (n = 102), and Surinamese (n = 311) populations in Amsterdam were examined. The study tested a hypothesized model of risk factors for psychiatric morbidity, indicators of well-being, and indicators of health care consumption. The model was specified on the basis of information from earlier research on the sample and literature on the topic. The model was tested and refined using structural equation modeling. Main outcome measures: Psychiatric morbidity and well-being measures were assessed with the CIDI 1.1 and MOS-sf-36 subscales, respectively. Health care consumption was assessed by the question "Have you ever consulted one or more of these professionals or health care facilities with respect to mental health problems or problems related to alcohol or drugs usage?" Results: The primary result of this study was the confirmation that health care consumption among migrants is predicted by need and predisposition factors, such as health condition and sociodemographic characteristics. In addition, mental health care consumption of migrants is predicted by acculturation characteristics. This result suggests an effect of cultural and migrant-specific factors in help-seeking behavior and barriers to mental health care facilities. Conclusions: Findings confirm the existence of migrant-specific mechanisms in health care consumption. Mental health care professionals should be aware of these. However, ignoring common ground for interventions unnecessarily creates distance between migrant groups and between migrant and indigenous Dutch groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concepts of schizophrenia among mental health professionals: A factor-analytic study.

Factor analyzed the questionnaire responses of 183 mental health professionals to identify relevant dimensions of beliefs about the phenomenology, etiology, and prognosis of schizophrenia. 8 factors were chosen for interpretation: interpersonal etiology, Bleulerian phenomenology, disease concept of schizophrenia, poor prognosis, poor understanding of schizophrenia, schizophrenia as thinking disorder, adaptive symptomatology, and irreversibility. In relating factor scores to S variables, it was found that professional discipline accounted for a significant proportion of variance in both etiological factors. Theoretical orientation was significantly related to opinions about the purposeful nature of schizophrenic symptoms and about prognosis, and place of employment was significantly related to various opinions about etiology and phenomenology. Findings are interpreted as casting doubt on the remaining usefulness of the term "schizophrenia." (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological testing in outpatient mental health facilities: A national study.

Surveyed psychological testing trends in outpatient mental health centers, clinics, and services in the US. The sample was obtained from the National Directory of Mental Health and the National Registry of Community Mental Health Services. Of 900 facilities with a psychologist on staff, 413 (46%) returned questionnaires. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Wechsler scales were the instruments most frequently used, closely followed in usage frequency by the major projective techniques. The Wide Range Achievement Test, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), the Peabody, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Wechsler Memory Scale were also quite popular. Apparently, clinicians rely on traditional tests despite the proliferation of new assessment instruments in the clinical literature. Implications for graduate training are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religious life-styles and mental health: An exploratory study.

Conducted an intensive, case-by-case assessment of life-styles of a sample of religious students. We identified differing styles of religiousness and made comparisons by means of tests and interviews between subgroups whose subjects manifested differing religious life-styles. Those subjects with continuous religious development and mild religious experiences appeared to be healthier than those with discontinuous development and intense religious experiences; however, intense religious experiences tended to enhance the adjustment of those who experienced them. There was no evidence in the group as a whole for an overall negative or positive correlation between religiousness and mental health, but some modes of religious involvement appeared to be related to disturbance, whereas other modes appeared to be related to enhanced stability and resilience. Because causality in these relations remains uncertain, we generate hypotheses concerning further studies of life-styles and adjustment. We also discuss implications for student counseling and development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A factor-analytic study of religious attitudes.

"Two basic religious attitude dimensions were isolated by inverse factor analysis. The first was described as a 'Nearness of God' dimension and the other as a 'Fundamentalism-Humanitarianism' dimension. A Religious Attitude Inventory with scales designed to measure these factors was constructed and subjected to cross-validational study." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Promoting and protecting mental health as flourishing: A complementary strategy for improving national mental health.

This article summarizes the conception and diagnosis of the mental health continuum, the findings supporting the two continua model of mental health and illness, and the benefits of flourishing to individuals and society. Completely mentally healthy adults--individuals free of a 12-month mental disorder and flourishing--reported the fewest missed days of work, the fewest half-day or greater work cutbacks, the healthiest psychosocial functioning (i.e., low helplessness, clear goals in life, high resilience, and high intimacy), the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease, the lowest number of chronic physical diseases with age, the fewest health limitations of activities of daily living, and lower health care utilization. However, the prevalence of flourishing is barely 20% in the adult population, indicating the need for a national program on mental health promotion to complement ongoing efforts to prevent and treat mental illness. Findings reveal a Black advantage in mental health as flourishing and no gender disparity in flourishing among Whites. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Underdiagnosing and nontreatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in community mental health: A case study.

Research indicates that trauma is extremely prevalent among populations seeking community-based services. However, underdiagnosis and nontreatment of trauma-related disorders is widespread. This study explored how one urban community mental health center (CMHC), serving a severely mentally ill (SMI) population, assessed, diagnosed, and treated reported trauma histories. Results indicate that of the 72 consumers in this sample who reported trauma histories (51%), only 2 were diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Instead, those with a reported trauma history were likely to be diagnosed with affective disorders and were almost seven times as likely to be recommended therapy as were those without a trauma history. However, even those recommended therapy were not likely to receive it. Findings indicate significant barriers to PTSD diagnoses and the receipt of therapy services. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological effects of depression and age in an elderly sample: A confirmatory study.

Few well-controlled studies have directly examined the relationship of age and depression with neuropsychological function while at the same time examining the possible influence of general medical illness. Toward this end, 44 elderly patients with unipolar major depression were compared with 30 nondepressed controls with a range of neuropsychological tests. The depressed patients evidenced a broad base of deficits relative to controls, as well as more rapid declines with increasing age on tests of complex psychomotor function, copying, and perceptual integration. Overall level of general medical illness had minimal influence on neuropsychological test performance in either group. In light of recent reports contradictory to the findings presented here, the importance of participant selection variables in neuropsychological studies of late-life depression is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neighborhood effects on physical and mental health: A study of Korean American older adults.

This study explored how the physical and mental health of Korean American older adults were influenced by neighborhood characteristics (i.e., proportion of individuals living below the poverty level, proportion of individuals 65 years of age and older, and proportion of racial/ethnic minorities in the census block groups where each respondent lived). Health perceptions (i.e., the subjective appraisal of one's own health) and depressive symptoms were used as indicators of physical and mental health. Multilevel analyses were performed with 567 individuals (at Level 1) nested within 233 census block groups (at Level 2). After controlling for individual demographic and health characteristics, we found that neighborhood poverty predicted health perceptions. The results add to the growing literature on the influence of the social environment and suggest that neighborhood characteristics should be taken into consideration in developing community-based policies for racially/ethnically diverse populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validation of cues for competencies of beginning level mental health nurses: an exploratory study in South Australian mental health agencies

The purpose of this study was to test whether serum testosterone (T) concentrations characteristic of reproductively active, long-day-housed Siberian hamsters are necessary for compensatory increases in nonexcised fat pads following removal of epididymal white adipose tissue (EWAT) and/or for the maintenance of seasonally appropriate body weights in these hamsters. Long-day-housed hamsters were castrated or left intact, sham or EWAT lipectomized, and given T or cholesterol (C) implants. All groups had ad libitum food access except for two castrated T-treated groups that were pair-fed to their C-treated counterparts to control for effects of T on food intake. C-treated castrates had decreased body weights compared with all other groups, suggesting a role of T in the maintenance of seasonally appropriate body mass. Since the T-treated hamsters pair-fed to these T-deficient animals exhibited seasonally appropriate body weights and fat pad masses, T does not appear to affect these parameters through the modulation of food intake. All fat pads of C-treated animals were smaller than those of ad libitum- or pair-fed, T-treated castrates; however, EWAT was the only fat pad that was smaller in the C-treated sham-lipectomized group than in gonad-intact sham-lipectomized hamsters. This result may indicate an enhanced sensitivity of EWAT to T. The effects of T on fat pad mass were not associated with proportionate changes in lipoprotein lipase activity, suggesting that the major effect of T on fat accumulation occurs through other mechanisms in this species. C-treated lipectomized hamsters compensated for the body fat deficit 8 weeks after lipectomy via statistically non-significant increases in retroperitoneal and inguinal WAT mass. This finding suggests that, whereas T is necessary for maintenance of seasonally-appropriate body weight, it is not necessary for fat pad compensation after EWAT lipectomy.     

Use of research in the practice of community mental health: A case study.

To assess the degree to which research was cited by practitioners in justifying their initial treatment decisions, 333 representatively sampled intake evaluation reports from a community mental health center requiring a rationale for preliminary mode and type of therapy were examined. Practitioners, in general, failed to provide rationales for their treatment decisions, and research was seldom cited when rationales were provided. Findings provide evidence that a schism exists between researchers and practitioners in community mental health; experimentally assessed reforms aimed at producing a more reciprocal exchange between researcher and practitioner are needed. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-disclosure and mental health: A problem of confounded measurement.

This study suggests that the inconsistent findings from previous research on the relation between self-disclosure and adjustment may be due to the inclusion of items on the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire (JSDQ) that are confounded with symptoms of poor adjustment or psychopathology. One-hundred-twenty-two cases of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1980) major depression were compared with 197 well controls on the degree to which they reported self-disclosure on a 27-topic version of the JSDQ. JSDQ items were separated into symptom-independent and symptom-dependent subscales on the basis of ratings by clinical experts. Results confirmed the initial hypothesis, demonstrating that well controls were more likely than depressed cases to disclose symptom-independent topics but were not more likely to disclose symptom-dependent topics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religiosity and mental health: A critical reevaluation and meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis of 24 studies on the relationship between religiosity and personality revealed no support for the preconception that religiousness is necessarily correlated with psychopathology; but it also showed only slightly positive correlates of religion. Better specification of concepts and methods of measuring religiosity are alleviating the problem of ambiguity in research results and suggest that religion reflects a multidimensional phenomenon that has positive and negative aspects. Clinical education, practice, and research need revision so that professionals will be better informed of the evidence, more open to the study of such variables, and more efficacious in their work with individuals who approach life from a religious perspective. (73 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An archival prospective study of mental health and longevity.

The relationship between mental health status and longevity was examined in an archival prospective cohort study (N?=?1,103) derived from work begun by Lewis Terman in the 1920s. Degree of psychological maladjustment, cumulatively rated by Terman and his colleagues as of 1950, was found to be related to higher risk of all-cause mortality over a 4-decade follow-up period. The differences among causes of death were nonsignificant, but there was some indication that mental health problems were more strongly related to deaths from injury and cardiovascular disease. The overall relationship was significant for men but weaker for women. The effect was not substantially mediated by alcohol consumption, obesity, or cigarette smoking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching mental health and law: A reply to Goldenberg.

In a recent article Goldenberg (1978) indicated that Shealy (1977), in his presentation of a format for teaching mental health workers basic forensic procedures and issues, failed to specify the potential rewards and costs of courtroom participation. Having participated as clinical psychology interns in a forensic psychology seminar led by and modeled after Shealy's (1977) format, the authors felt they could offer a meaningful rejoinder based on their personal experiences with both the rewards and potential pitfalls of such judicial participation, and on our understanding of the basic adversary nature of the legal system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching mental health and law: A reply to Shealy.

Comments on the article by A. E. Shealy (see record 2005-09632-004) describing the teaching approach in forensic psychology. The current author notes that if, as Shealy proposes, advantages and positive rewards are available to psychologists participating in the judicial system, then it is also important to evaluate the negative aspects. Furthermore, a confrontation of the inequities with the advocate and adversarial approach needs more exploration in Shealy's system. The author describes a graduate program in forensic psychology at the University of Washington, in which students in law, psychiatry, and psychology, psychology interns, and other health science professionals will be able to participate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naughty but nice: A laboratory study of health information and food preferences in a community sample.

The influence of information about the fat content of food and cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention on taste ratings and food intake in a test meal was examined. 40 adults (aged 20–55 yrs) were allocated at random to CVD information or control conditions. Ss rated 2 brands of yogurt and 2 cheese sandwiches, with one flavor of each food labeled "full-fat" and the other "low-fat." In fact, fat levels were identical, and the label-flavor pairings were counterbalanced. Overall, Ss gave lower liking ratings to the low-fat labeled foods. However, Ss in the information condition tended to eat a smaller proportion of the full-fat sandwiches. Results support the utility of a laboratory setting for evaluating the influence of health-relevant information on responses to food. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotionality and mental health: Longitudinal findings from the normative aging study.

The present longitudinal study examined the relation between the temperament types of emotionality and extraversion, as assessed by the Eysenck Personality Inventory-Q (Floderus, 1974), and self-reported psychological symptoms 10 years later, as assessed by the revised version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 1983). The sample consisted of 1,324 older men, participants in the Normative Aging Study. Those high in emotionality were expected to report higher levels of symptoms than those low in emotionality. Symptoms of depression and anxiety, however, were hypothesized to be higher among emotional introverts, whereas hostility and psychoticism were expected to be higher among emotional extraverts. Canonical correlation analysis showed that emotionality and extraversion accounted for 25% of the variance in mental health 10 years later. However, emotionality accounted for most of the variance, with extraversion accounting for only 2%. The results are interpreted as support for the construct of negative affectivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mutual achievement strivings: A continuum for mental health.

Mental health is defined in transactional terms, i.e., in terms of the intent of an individual towards equality or mutuality of achievement in relating to others. 4 levels of mutual achievement striving are described and a continuum composed of 8 varieties of intention-transactions is offered. Case histories of 64 patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital were examined to isolate events which could be evaluated in terms of the intention-transaction dimension. Each S was assigned a score on this continuum which reflected his degree of "mental health," and these scores were then compared to a measure of severity of mental illness (see 35: 6569), psychiatric diagnosis, type of treatment recommended, and outcome of treatment. Intention-transaction scores correlated positively with the variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)